"We have met the enemy and he is us."
So said the long-running American comic strip character Pogo in a 1970 Earth Day poster about pollution. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world's most respected scientific authority on the climate change topic, recently said much the same thing.
The group released its highly anticipated Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). This latest report largely confirmed or reiterated previous observations and conclusions, hammering home two major takeaways in particular: Climate change is happening and we are causing it. The biggest culprit is greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, chiefly because of fossil fuel combustion, although deforestation also has been an important contributor.
Ironically, while the fossil-fuel-burning energy sector is the largest contributor to global GHG emissions, it is also one of the industries most vulnerable to climate change. The Department of Energy released a sobering report in July describing the vulnerabilities of the U.S. energy sector to climate change and extreme weather. Globally, increasing temperatures are accompanied by increasing droughts, greater wildfires and more severe storms, all of which wreak havoc on our energy system.
Not that long ago, I wrote a piece describing how a microgrid could help you survive a zombie apocalypse; the reality is microgrids can help us both prepare for and prevent the much more realistic threat of climate change. Combatting climate change necessarily involves a critical shift away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy, efficiency and renewable energy. Such energy resources are inherently distributed and resilient, which makes them naturally compatible with -- and their benefits maximized by -- microgrids. Thus with efficiency and renewables as part of a microgrid electricity architecture, you don't have to choose between mitigation and adaptation. You can have both. You can have your cake and eat it, too.
Microgrids for mitigation
The University of Texas at Austin is home to the nation's largest microgrid, clocking in at 140 MW. Aside from its magnitude, the facility is also legendary for its efficiency and GHG track record. The campus's district energy system, which provides heat, power and chilled water, runs at 87 percent efficiency and has managed to bring its GHG emissions below its 1977 output (most countries and companies with GHG goals are targeting 1990 levels). The university has accomplished all of this while maintaining 99.9998 percent reliability in service (yes, that is five 9s). When you ask Juan Ontiveros, director of utilities and energy management for the university, how it was done, he'll tell you, "One word: efficiency."
greenbiz